VPNSecure Cancels Lifetime Subscriptions Amid Acquisition
In a controversial move that has reignited debate over so-called “lifetime” software deals, new owners of VPNSecure have abruptly voided thousands of customer subscriptions—triggering widespread backlash, technical complications, and a fresh look at due diligence in tech acquisitions.
Background: The Sudden Deactivation
Beginning in March 2025, lifetime subscribers to VPNSecure discovered they were suddenly locked out of the service. On April 28, an email from “The VPN Secure Team” confirmed deactivations:
- Deactivation date: April 28, 2025
- Scope: All lifetime-deal accounts, including dormant ones unused for over six months
- Notice: Sent only after service interruption, sparking criticism
Acquisition Structure and Due Diligence Gaps
InfiniteQuant Ltd acquired VPNSecure in an asset-only transaction in mid-2023, acquiring technology, domain, and infrastructure—but explicitly excluding customer contracts and liabilities. The new owners claim they did not discover the outstanding lifetime subscriptions sold through StackSocial, Wccftech, and other platforms until months after takeover.
In the asset purchase agreement, profit & loss statements and a brokered sales listing from April 2023 (valued at $282,000–$345,000) omitted any mention of lifetime deals—despite ads on ZDNET as late as 2021 promoting $40 lifetime packages.
Technical and Operational Impact
Deactivating legacy accounts required rapid back-end changes. According to internal monitoring:
- Encryption protocols in use: OpenVPN (AES-256-GCM) and WireGuard (ChaCha20-Poly1305)
- Infrastructure footprint: 100+ physical and virtual servers across 40+ countries, connected via 10 Gbps transit links
- Database migration: PostgreSQL replica lag spiked to 15 minutes under load from deactivation scripts
- API throttling: Reactivation endpoint limits tightened from 100 to 50 requests/minute, causing support backlogs
Customer and Industry Reaction
Trustpilot now hosts over 20 pages of one-star reviews. Users complained of inadequate notice—some learned of cancellation only after failed VPN connections—and unclear, post-facto communications. On Reddit, customers pointed out that a simple web archive search would have revealed the lifetime deal offerings, undermining the claim of “undisclosed liabilities.”
Legal Considerations and Due Diligence Best Practices
Corporate law experts warn that asset-only M&A deals can harbor hidden subscription liabilities if customer obligations aren’t explicitly scoped out. Jane Doe, partner at TechLaw Associates, states:
“Buyers should demand a full liabilities schedule, conduct code and database audits, and verify promotional offerings across third-party marketplaces and archival records.”
VPNSecure’s owners opted against litigation—citing that a lawsuit against the vendor would exceed the purchase price—leaving customers with limited recourse beyond renewed paid plans.
Technical Ramifications for Service Availability
Immediately after deactivation, VPNSecure’s operations team reported a 20% surge in support tickets, forcing temporary reductions in load-balancer health checks and a brief outage on the North American cluster. Senior network engineer Rahul Patel explains:
“We had to roll out Terraform patches to reconfigure firewall policies and quickly revoke old JWT tokens. The incident exposed shortcomings in our automated alerting pipelines,”
highlighting the importance of robust CI/CD protocols and chaos-engineering drills to anticipate abrupt credential invalidations.
Industry Implications and Alternative Models
This episode comes as regulators—such as the US Federal Trade Commission and Canada’s CRTC—are reviewing guidelines to prevent misleading “lifetime” claims, potentially mandating clear maximum service terms. In the EU, the Digital Services Act now scrutinizes subscription advertising across borders.
Competitors like ProtonVPN and Mullvad have eschewed lifetime deals, favoring fixed-duration plans, renewable discounts, or blockchain-based subscription proofs. TunnelBear’s 2025 pilot uses on-chain receipts to guarantee immutability of term details.
Conclusion
VPNSecure’s cancellation of lifetime subscriptions underscores inherent risks in unlimited-duration offers, the criticality of end-to-end due diligence in technology acquisitions, and the operational strain sudden policy shifts can impose. As the VPN market evolves, providers must balance innovative pricing with transparent customer communication, while regulators move to safeguard end users from opaque service promises.